


Small Victories, Large Revelations

by writingfromdarkplaces



Series: Fleet Legal Advocate Corps Alternate Universe [6]
Category: Battlestar Galactica (2003)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-14
Updated: 2016-08-14
Packaged: 2018-08-08 20:02:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,725
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7771261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/writingfromdarkplaces/pseuds/writingfromdarkplaces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bill deals with the aftermath of a devastating explosion on his hanger deck and learns a lot about his son from a couple unlikely sources.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Small Victories, Large Revelations

**Author's Note:**

> I knew after the end of the last one, I needed a follow up. I just didn't get to it right away. I'm not good at this sort of thing anymore (see the first in this series for the note on not thinking I could ever finish it.)
> 
> Also, I think someday I should do the week of leave Kara mentions, though I feel like I can't because it should involve a lot of... um, porn, and I can't do that. I can do a more PG version of it, maybe. If my latest idea didn't ruin everything, that is.

* * *

“I can't believe I'm standing here again.”

Cottle grunted. “Not sure you want to hear this, but he's lucky he's alive. If he'd been inside that Raptor when it blew, he'd be dead. As it is, he's got third degree burns on half of his body, three busted ribs, a broken arm, but what concerns me most is the hit his skull took when it hit the deck.”

Bill winced. His doctor had never been one to sugarcoat anything, and he knew that what Cottle lacked in beside manner, he made up for in skill. He was one of the most experienced battle surgeons in the fleet, only serving out the last of his years before retirement on _Galactica,_ and Bill was damned lucky that the man was still on board now.

“How bad?”

Cottle went over the side, putting an x-ray up on the screen. “This fracture here is going to be the main problem. It's putting pressure on his brain, and he will need surgery to relieve it.”

“Damn,” Bill whispered. “I really am doing this all over again.”

Cottle shook his head. “There's no sign of injury to his spine, though there may be complications and issues we know nothing about—we won't know until he wakes up, which is unlikely to happen anytime soon. He needs surgery now.”

“You're prepared to do it?”

“They're setting up now,” Cottle answered, and Bill grimaced. “Your son wouldn't survive the trip back to the colonies. With that much pressure in his brain, an FTL jump would kill him, and sublight will do the same, just slower.”

Bill nodded. “I figured. I've never doubted your calls before—even if I sure as hell didn't like them—but this is my son and I need to know—”

“There's still a good chance he won't wake up,” Cottle said. He finished his cigar and blew out the smoke. “That said, from all accounts, your son is a stubborn son of a bitch that defied the odds before, and he could do it again.”

“He'd better.”

Cottle nodded. “I need to get in there. If you have anything to say to him, now is the time.”

Bill looked down at the bed, at Lee's still form, the loose bandages covering the burns, and he swallowed hard. Leaning over the bed, he got close to Lee's ear. “You heard the man. You said frak the odds before, and you walked again. You're going to live through this. Neither of us will accept anything less. That's not who we are, or we certainly wouldn't have fought this much while you were here.”

Reaching for Lee's good hand, he picked it up and held it in his own, giving it a squeeze as he went on. “I never said this before, and I should have. I don't even know why I held it back. Pride, I suppose. But Lee... I never thought you caused the crash. That wasn't what I was trying to say back then, and I never should have let you go on thinking it was.”

* * *

“But...” Sharon began, looking at Commander Adama in confusion. “I thought...”

Helo frowned, watching from the sidelines, his gut churning in a way that made him want to run from this room because if he followed the thought where he believed Sharon had taken it, it was hard not to take it further. She thought her transfer wouldn't go through after what happened to Captain Adama on the flight deck. And if that was what she really thought, could she actually be responsible for that?

Or was Tyrol? Could the chief have wanted to keep her around enough that he'd rigged that Raptor to explode?

“You believed your transfer wouldn't go through because my son was almost killed,” Adama said, fixing a cold look on her, not just a command one. Oh, frak this was bad. There was a saying about a wounded bear or a mother bear and her cubs, but this was papa, and he was pissed, ready for battle with anyone who might have been stupid enough to frak with his kid.

Sharon swallowed. “Yes, sir. I mean, no... I mean—I thought maybe if the paperwork hadn't gone through I didn't have to go yet. That's all. I swear.”

“Lee is in surgery now,” Adama said. “They are operating on his brain, and they tell me there's a chance he might not wake up from this. Even after he does, he'll have a long recovery ahead of him. If I believed for one moment that you or anyone connected to you did anything to my son—”

“Sir, no. I swear. It wasn't me, and it wasn't Galen,” Sharon said. She winced. “We... were saying goodbye when the explosion happened. Neither of us were there when—”

“That may have been a little convenient for you, Lieutenant.”

Sharon's eyes widened. She turned to Helo in desperation. Helo swallowed, not wanting to be involved. He didn't want to believe it, either, but he could see what Adama did.

“The explosion wasn't an accident, was it, sir?”

Adama grunted. “Never seen an accident do that to a ship in my life, and I doubt I'll start now. Preliminary investigation isn't complete, but I know what I saw. And I saw someone try and kill my son. If there had been anyone else in that Raptor, they'd be dead. Lee's damned lucky he was still on the ramp and not inside.”

Helo nodded. “I... Sir, there's something I think you should know.”

“Out with it.”

“Not here.”

Sharon looked at him. “Helo, you don't actually think I—”

“Enough,” Adama said, cutting her off harshly. Helo was glad he didn't have to answer that question, not now. “Lieutenant Valerii, you are relieved and confined to quarters pending the investigation's results. Same goes for Chief Tyrol. Lieutenant Agathon, walk with me.”

Karl followed after him, falling into step with the commander as they went through the halls. He didn't know if he should start or not. Adama took the choice away from him.

“How private does this conversation need to be?”

“Sir, I don't know. It does involve some things that—”

“My quarters, then. And don't start on waiting for later. I'm not about to stand still while Lee's in surgery and do nothing,” Adama said, waving him on. Karl grimaced, but he knew he had to see this through. He also needed to get word to Kara, and he had to hope that the commander would help with that. He might not, if he blamed Kara for this, which Kara thought Karl should do.

After one of the tensest walks of Helo's life, they reached the commander's quarters. Adama let Helo go in first, and then he followed, closing the hatch behind him. He sat down on the first chair and motioned for him to do the same. “Now, Lieutenant. What do you have to tell me?”

“Sir, I don't really know how to say this,” Karl began, and the commander looked annoyed.

“Say it.”

Helo nodded. “I just... I'm friends with Kara Thrace, sir. She's a flight instructor on Piccon. I know that doesn't seem like it should matter, but I'm worried it does.”

“Explain faster, Helo. I don't have a lot of patience.”

“A few months back, she met your son when he was assigned to investigate the deaths of two of her nuggets. They were just about to graduate, but they crashed and died. Kara thought it was the guidance system. Captain Adama ruled it pilot error,” Helo began. He saw the look on the commander's face and shook his head. “I'm not saying Kara did this. She wasn't even here. It's just... They... They sort of got involved when your son was there.”

“Involved?”

“As in a relationship,” Helo said, feeling _very_ uncomfortable. He was not going to say they were frakking, but that was what it was. “I gather it wasn't supposed to last beyond his time there, and it shouldn't have happened because of the investigation, but Starbuck never knew when to follow rules.”

“Are you saying they are still involved?”

Helo grimaced. “Uh... yes. That's what I'm saying, sir. Apparently, his CO told him to put a stop to it, and he refused.”

Adama frowned. “If the investigation was still on-going, that would be one thing, but you said Lee closed it. If the relationship continued afterward, it should have no bearing on anything. What rank is Thrace?”

“A lieutenant, sir, so I guess that's another mark against it, at least at the outset, but he's not in her direct chain of command and he never would be. Sir—Kara doesn't think that rank or the investigation had anything to do with it. Not—what I'm trying to say, sir, is that Kara believes they're punishing him for refusing to end the relationship. That was why he was assigned to _Galactica._ I'm worried it's why that Raptor exploded.”

Adama's jaw set in a thin line. “All this for a relationship that was at one point against regulations but is not now?”

“No, sir, because Kara's been vocal about the problems with the guidance system, the same thing your son believed caused his crash. She still believes it is what caused the death of her nuggets. She's convinced the fleet's covering up the problems. She's not sure why, but she said they'd threatened him before—threatened your family—and so he keeps reporting the crashes as pilot error even when he doesn't believe it.”

“They threatened my family?”

“I don't know, sir. You'd have to ask him, but that's what Kara said. I... You never knew? Well, she said you abandoned him but—”

“I did not abandon my son,” Adama ground out. He struggled to control himself. “Is there anything else you can add, Lieutenant?”

Helo shook his head. “I don't know anything else, sir. No, wait, I'm wrong. I forgot that they somehow made formal charges for this thing Kara and I—We got in a fight. We hit each other. It was done, over, just one of those things. Still, they made it out that one of us pressed charges when neither of us did or would.”

Adama nodded. “Very well, Lieutenant. You're dismissed.”

Helo left with relief.

* * *

Kara fidgeted again, not for the first time on this trip. She would much rather have been behind the stick, but she wasn't given a choice. She had a bad feeling about this, had since Helo's call bitching about Lee, and she knew she wasn't wrong. She hadn't heard from Lee like she expected to, since she figured he'd call as soon as he was off _Galactica,_ but he hadn't. There couldn't be any good reason she'd have orders to report to _Galactica_ immediately. She didn't even know how those strings could have been pulled, just that they were and she was cooling her heels in the backseat of a Raptor wishing she knew what the frak was going on.

“Almost there, Lieutenant. Time for approach,” the pilot called back to her, and she nodded, still wishing she was behind the controls. She gritted her teeth through the approach, even if this was no nugget, a seasoned pilot with skill in a Raptor.

The bird hard-sealed on the deck, and she tapped her foot impatiently until the hatch opened and she could get out of there. She looked around the deck and quickly found her eyes staring at a part of it that was taped off, a burned out Raptor sitting there like a frakking funeral pyre.

“Welcome to _Galactica,_ Lieutenant Thrace,” a man in a captain's uniform said. “I'm—”

“Ripper. I use your tapes to teach my nuggets sometimes,” she said, giving him a salute. “Sir, if you don't mind, I could use an explanation for why I'm here.”

He shook his head. “I have no idea. The colonel ordered me to meet your ship, but he didn't explain anything.”

“Sir?” Helo interrupted. “I think I can help with that.”

Ripper nodded to him. “Very well, Lieutenant. Carry on.”

Helo started to walk off the deck, and Kara followed with a frown. “Okay, spill. What the frak is going on? Because I'm getting a very bad feeling about all this, and I don't like it. Don't tell me to wait, because I will hurt you if you do.”

Helo shook his head. “I think the commander would have been there himself if things were different, since he must have sent for you.”

“Yeah, I think I figured that out.”

Helo drew in a breath and let it out again. “Kara, when Captain Adama was about to leave, there was an explosion on his Raptor.”

She gagged. She'd seen that thing. _No, gods, no._ “Lee?”

“He's alive. For now. He got frakked over good from what I hear. Burns, broken bones, and he had to have surgery because he fractured his skull when he was thrown,” Helo said. “He was actually lucky. If he'd been inside when it went off, he'd have died.”

Kara stopped, putting a hand to the wall and leaning against it. “Frak.”

Helo touched her other arm. “Gods know I don't know what you see in him, but I've never seen you like this.”

She put a hand to her head. “I don't know what it is, Helo. I met him, and I figured he'd be a bit of fun if I could loosen him up, and boy do I like it when those tightly wound ones unwind because they're something else, but that's not even what it was like with us. You know me. I've never needed anyone to come back, never had to chase anyone. I wheedle a little, tease, prod, and I get what I want. I've only had a few turn me down, and that was because they swung the wrong way.”

“Yeah.”

“When Lee shut down the investigation and left, I was pissed. It shouldn't matter—he told me what he was going to do and why—but he left and I got angry for a different reason,” she said. She shook her head. “I still can't believe I took leave and almost assaulted him in his office. That week was... perfect. I actually thought...”

Helo looked at her. “You thought...?”

“I thought I wanted it. You know, the stupid stuff everyone makes too big a deal about. Don't look at me like that. I wasn't saying a house with two kids. Just... one person. For a long time. Maybe even forever. Because when I'm with Lee, I feel like that's all I need. It scares the frak out of me.”

Karl winced. “Damn. I knew you'd fallen hard, but _that_ hard?”

“I need to see him,” Kara said. “Where the frak is he?”

Helo took her arm, but she pulled away from him. “This way.”

* * *

Bill looked up from his son's sleeping form as Helo pushed back the curtains. Lee was still out cold, and Cottle said he intended to keep him that way for at least a day, trying to reduce any further pressure on his brain. The medical coma would keep his son safe, but it was a hard pill to swallow when all Bill wanted was Lee awake and whole.  
He bit back a grimace. He sometimes asked himself if he would have treated Lee as less if he hadn't been able to walk again, and he didn't always get the answer he wanted. He wasn't sure he would have done right. Lee had been everything Bill thought he wanted in his sons—an officer and a pilot with a fast track career. Lee broke records, he pushed the bar higher for everyone else, and he made the fleet better just by being there.

He would have been medically discharged if he hadn't studied law and switched designations, but that didn't make his choice easier to stomach. FLAC had taken flight from him, and Bill didn't understand how Lee could work with them, could want to.

He still didn't, but he looked over at the young woman with Helo and wondered if it was time he got some.

“You're Lieutenant Thrace.”

She didn't even seem to hear him, going to the bed and taking Lee's hand with a single word. “Frak.”

“Lieutenant.”

She looked up at him, finally hearing Bill speak. “Sorry, sir. I just... Helo told me, but I didn't expect this. Gods, it's wrong. Even when he was being an uptight ass, he had this energy about him, this sort of magnetism that just drew you in. You couldn't look away.”

“I used to call it the air of command. His mother hated when I did.”

Thrace smiled. “No, it's not command. It's not even that they called him Apollo, though I'm sure that was part of why he ended up with that name. No, it's just... Lee. It's who he is.”

Bill thought about that, let it slide. He wasn't sure what to think of this one. He wasn't the sort Lee used to date before the crash. Those tended to be far less interesting, and Bill lost track of their names. He remembered them as pretty and polished, refined and sort of like Carolanne before their marriage. He'd thought she was perfect and he was going to mess her up, and he did, just not in the way he'd thought.

Thrace wasn't polished. She could be called pretty, but he got the feeling she'd deck anyone who said so. She seemed like a fighter, and he knew by reports that Starbuck was one hell of a pilot.

“Helo told me a bit of your relationship with my son.”

She blinked. “He did?”

Agathon fidgeted. “Not like I have details, you know. I just... I told the commander what you told me about the... well, after the explosion I figured he should know.”

“Oh, frak,” she whispered, looking back at Lee. She closed her eyes with a wince. “Gods, please, tell me this wasn't about that.”

“I don't know what it's about,” Bill admitted. “I'm pissed as hell. Someone on _my_ ship tried to kill _my_ son.”

“You don't think it was possible it was an accident?”

“No.”

She nodded. “I didn't think so. I'm not sure what I can tell you, sir, and I'm not sure we can afford to talk here. I don't—I don't want to leave Lee, either.”

“I can stay with him while you talk,” Helo offered. “I know he won't know me, but he won't be alone, at least.”

“Cottle's planning on keeping him under for a least a day. He thinks it's necessary to reduce the need for additional surgery,” Bill told them. “I'll allow it, Helo. Let Ripper know I've pulled you from regular duty for the foreseeable future. I'm not sure how long. I'm not sure who I trust anymore, and I'm leveraging plenty on what you've already told me and the fact that Thrace seems to agree with trusting you, but if anything happens to Lee—”

“It won't, sir,” Helo agreed. Bill motioned for Thrace to go forward. She waited for him at the door, and he realized that for all that some battlestars seemed the same, she didn't know where to go. He gestured to the hallway. “We'll use my quarters. I'm reasonably certain they're safe.”

She almost laughed. “Sir, with respect, nowhere is.”

He gave her a sharp look at those words. “What do you mean?”

She swallowed. “Sir, I..”

“Out with it.”

“Not here,” she disagreed, and he forced himself to nod. They were silent until they'd reached his hatch. He nodded to the guards and had her go in. He was still assessing her, trying to get a read on her, though if he was thinking he needed a hint about why Lee liked her, he would have been a fool.

Shutting the door behind him, he said, “Now, Lieutenant. What did you mean by that?”

She grimaced. “Lee told me they once hinted they were willing to take your whole ship down to get to you when he wouldn't back off looking into the guidance system.”  
Bill stared at her. He didn't know what surprised him more, that Lee was still looking into the system or that he'd backed off when Bill was threatened. He went over to his desk, pulling out his bottle of whiskey. He needed this now. Pouring them both a glass, he handed one to her and sat down.

“I'm not sure I understand. When Lee took the position with FLAC, I assumed he'd accepted what they told him about the crash being pilot error.”

She snorted, almost spilling her cup. “Are you frakking kidding? He joined them so he could investigate on his own and get his wings back.”

Damn. Bill had completely misjudged that. “It's been years. He's still there. He still won't talk to me. If he hadn't been assigned here, doing their dirty work, I wouldn't have seen him for probably the rest of my life.”

She drank from her glass before speaking. “He said the first warning came when his mother and brother were in a car accident. That wasn't enough, so they almost crippled him again and threatened your ship. He did back down. Gods, I think it just about killed him.”

“How do you know?”

She studied the glass. “When Lee talks about before the crash, he smiles. Gods, can that man smile. And he _laughs._ He sounds so happy, and I remember the looks we got when he did. His coworkers all thought he'd gone insane or something because he was smiling. When he laughed, someone came over to us and asked if he was okay. And when he talks about the threats, he gets distant. Cold. Like he's trying to put a wall between himself and what happened. He'd wall that off forever if he could.”

“But he told you.”

She nodded. “Lee and I... I don't know what it is with us. I just know that it's there. He told me he was closing the investigation, I said he couldn't, and in the middle of arguing that out, he told me about the threats. He said something happened on your ship or must have because you tried to call him, and it made him back down. After that, he let the pilot error lie stand. He doesn't do anything that shows them he's still working on it, but I bet if you asked him he could recite every instance that lie has been used in the last three years, including ones he wasn't assigned to. He knows them. He could pull them and make a case—if they'd let him.”

Bill drank his whiskey, trying to think. “Lee never told me about the threats.”

“He thought you bought the party line. Why would he tell you anything? Helo only did because he serves under you and doesn't know Lee like I do. He thinks your son is just the act Lee uses when he's working, the one that gets him through the hell that is his life.”

“Lee's wrong. I never once thought he crashed that bird on purpose. My son's too good a damned pilot for that.”

She stared at him. “Are you frakking kidding me?”

Bill shook his head. “I said the wrong thing back when Lee transferred. Lee took my words about accepting responsibility as condemnation. I just meant he had to accept the cards he'd been dealt. It was a bum hand, and I still don't see how they could feel he couldn't manage a civilian craft. His record up to the crash was impeccable, and one mistake shouldn't mean the end of everything.”

“He was accepting his hand. He went to FLAC to try and salvage something of his life,” she said. “He said it was naïve, and maybe it was, but I think he did the right thing. I'm just afraid...”

“Afraid of what?”

“That I didn't. Lee told me if he didn't follow his CO's orders to stop that there would be consequences, but I said I didn't care. Gods, I might have gotten him killed.”

Bill shook his head. “Lee has always been stubborn. When he feels he needs to do something, he will. He may have warned you, but not because you could have stopped him. If he wanted to keep seeing you, he would have done it.”

She shook her head. “He would have left me because it was the right thing to do and it would have kept me safe. Your son is a noble idiot sometimes.”

“Just sometimes?”

She shrugged. “Sometimes he's not so noble.”

Bill laughed. He liked this one.

* * *

“I thought Cottle took him out of the coma.”

“He stopped giving Lee the drugs,” Adama corrected. “Lee still has to wake up on his own.”

Kara winced, taking Lee's hand and lowering her head over the bed. She wanted to pray but she knew how Lee felt about faith and also how that went along with the commander's—one of the few things they agreed on, he'd joked—and so she didn't make a show of it. Besides, prayer was private, at least most of the time.

She sighed. “I guess... I just thought...”

“Kara,” Adama said, and she felt his hand on her shoulder, “I've watched Lee come back from the dead before. From being told he would never walk again to running a marathon just to prove his physical therapist wrong. He always did hate her.”

“She slept with Zak.”

Adama stilled. “She did _what?”_

Kara shrugged. “It wasn't like he was a child at the time, though Lee was pretty disgusted with it because she'd been hitting on him for weeks and then she hooked up with his brother. He said it was wrong, that she'd used Zak, and he still hates her for it.”

The commander grimaced. “There's a lot about both my sons I don't know. I want to ask you for more, but we spent hours already going over what might have lead to this explosion, and you're exhausted. You should get some rest.”

“I know, but I'd rather be here.”

“I'll make it an order, Lieutenant.”

She sighed. “Lee said you did that, pulled rank when you got mad at him not doing what he was supposed to. It used to piss him off.”

Adama shook his head. “I want to hear about that and more, so you had better hit your rack. I'll stay with him for a bit and then get Helo.”

“Sir, I want to stay,” she said. “You're right. We talked for hours, but I've only been able to see Lee for a few minutes. I want longer than that. I _need_ longer than that.” 

She thought about saying the rest of it. She couldn't bring herself to tell Lee's father that she couldn't sleep without him, that she hadn't really managed it since she got back from leave. She'd been spoiled rotten, laughing, flirting, and frakking her way through their days and then falling into peaceful sleep right next to him. He would wrap his arms around her—the first time made her panic and want to run, but as soon as she calmed down a little, she was out like a light. She hadn't stopped wanting that since. Lee had frakking ruined her. She wasn't sure if she dared tell him that, though.

Adama nodded. “Fine. I'll come back in a couple hours. I need to check on my ship.”

She smiled, turning back to Lee. Gods, he was still a mess. She didn't want to wince looking at the burns, but she did, a little. She knew he'd make a big deal out of the scars again, since he had the last time, but she didn't care. What bothered her was knowing he was hurting.

“You need to wake up, Lee. I'll even beg if I have to.”

* * *

“Helo?”

“Hey.” He gave her a small smile, passing her a bottle of water. “Cottle's about ready to evict you, but the commander pulled him aside to ask a few questions, so you're getting a reprieve.”

Kara tried to smile at that, but she couldn't. “He still hasn't woken up.”

“I know. The main thing is that he's still breathing,” Karl reminded her, and Kara tried to nod. “I heard Cottle tell the old man the burns shouldn't scar too much, and that's something, too. Take the small victories here. If you're really in this, it's not a short-term thing. Not just one battle.”

“Are you saying I _don't_ intend to stick around? What, if Lee's face did end up stuck scarred just like that I wouldn't frak him anymore?” Kara demanded, getting out of her chair. “If I was going to cut and run, I'd already have done it.”

“Like you could run off _Galactica._ No one would give you clearance to take off, remember?”

She rolled her eyes. “Still not the point.”

“I know.”

“How is your friend doing?”

Helo grimaced. “I... I don't know. I'm still not sure what to think. I mean, as soon as the commander said it, I was worried. I know Sharon. I shouldn't think she was capable of that, of sabotaging a Raptor just to avoid a reassignment, but something feels wrong about all of this, and I can't figure out what it is.”

“It seems extreme to me, too, but I am still tripping over the idea that with at least two confirmed deaths—I think Lee knows the exact number, but I bet it's a lot higher—to that guidance problem and one very publicized crash they'd just fess up and say they made a mistake, not try and keep burying it. They'll get all of us pilots killed. I don't want to see that happen, and I don't understand why they would. It's a program, right? How hard is it for them to fix a few lines of code?”

Helo shook his head. “I have no idea, but it must be insanely expensive for them to refuse to do the sane thing instead of covering this up.”

“I guess.” Kara still wasn't satisfied with that answer. She wanted a better one. She grimaced. “Gods, I'm ripe.”

“Yeah, look, when Cottle kicks you out, take a few minutes and shower. I think your boyfriend would appreciate it even in a coma. Who wants to wake up to that?”

“Shut up, Helo. He's not my boyfriend.”

“The commander thinks he is.”

Kara couldn't think of anything to say to that. Frak. She hadn't ever met a guy's parents before, the way other girls had, but she must have made one hell of a first impression on the commander. Damn. She'd screwed that up good.

Karl laughed, and she reached over to hit him.

* * *

“Dreaming.”

Kara's head jerked up, and she looked over at the bed, trying to contain herself and failing. She knew those eyes. They were a bit cloudy at the moment, but they couldn't have been more beautiful. “You're awake.”

“Not. Can't. You're here.”

She reached over and touched his face, careful to keep to the side that wasn't burned so she wouldn't hurt him. “No, I'm really here. What, you think I'd stay away when you got yourself hurt? Don't be an idiot.”

He grimaced, his good hand going for the burn on his face. She winced, knowing he shouldn't touch it and was about to regret it. “Even less... like... call sign now.”

“Frak that,” she said. “You think this is about how you look?”

He would have raised an eyebrow at that if it wasn't singed off. “It isn't?”

“Gods, you frakker,” she muttered, shaking her head at him. “Fine, it's not just about that, because I have admitted you have a beautiful body, and more than once, if I'm not mistaken, but that's not all this is, Lee.”

He closed his eyes again. “Keep thinking... pain meds... but hurt too much...”

“Go get Cottle,” Adama ordered, and Kara saw Lee's eyes pop open again. He groaned as he tried to turn his head to look at his father. The commander stepped closer to the bed. “I'm here, Lee. You're still on _Galactica._ Do you remember what happened?”

Lee grimaced. “Yes. Mostly. I...”

“You mind telling me how long he's been awake and why the frak no one came to get me as soon as he was?” Cottle demanded, coming back by the bed. He took out his flashlight and leaned close, shining it in both of Lee's eyes. “You know who you are and where you are, I assume?”

“Lee Adama,” he answered. “Dad said... _Galactica._ How... long?”

“Four days. You spent the first one in surgery,” Cottle said. He looked him over. “They'll want to transfer you back planetside now that you're awake. I haven't seen any sign of pressure building up again or that you've got brain damage.”

“You want real proof of that?” Kara asked. She turned to Lee. “What part of military code is that rule about proper maintenance of your service weapon?”

“Twenty-nine... subsection twelve... line nine... but that's... just about maintaining combat readiness,” Lee said, sounding tired. “I told you... not a specific regulation, just a principle.”

She grinned back at him. Cottle grunted.

“He mentioned pain,” Adama said, watching his son with something close to a smile. She was glad she'd told him that story. He seemed to like it, and it was just so... Lee. “You might have to give him more medication.”

“That so, Captain? You in pain?”

Lee glared at him. “My face feels like... fire. Arm... chest...”

“Yes, I'm aware,” Cottle said. “We'll get you something for that. Anything else you've noticed since you've been awake? Blurred vision? Ringing in the ears?”

“No. Just... tired.”

“We'll let you get some rest,” Adama promised. “You look like you could use it.”

Lee waited for Cottle to leave, then addressed his father. “Dad, the... deal...”

“Burned up in your Raptor, and I haven't let Valerii off the ship yet. I'm still trying to determine if she had any involvement in what happened. Someone planted that bomb, and we have no idea who.” Adama's mouth set into a hard line. “But we will find out.”


End file.
